Ontario has among the highest electricity rates in North America, causing companies and jobs to flee the province, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak says.

“Soaring electricity costs have taken Ontario from a competitive advantage in energy to nearly the highest costs in North America,” Hudak said Friday in Ottawa, where he spoke to the Economic Club of Canada.

“The electricity price for large customers in Ottawa is more than twice what it is across the river in Gatineau, or in Winnipeg. It’s twice what it is in Chicago,” he said.

And it’s only going to get worse, Hudak told the mainly business crowd.

Hudak’s position was supported this week by a survey from the Association of Major Power Consumers of Ontario (AMPCO) stating Ontario industries pay more for electricity than competitors elsewhere in North America.

And the association concludes that leads to a growing risk of industries and jobs bypassing the province for lower-cost jurisdictions, the Star’s John Spears reported.

Ontario industries pay 7.6 cents to 9.4 cents a kilowatt hour for electricity, according to the survey, based on 2012 power prices.

At the time of the survey electricity averaged 5.6 cents a kilowatt hour in New York, 5.4 cents in six New England states, 4.5 cents in 14 jurisdictions clustered around Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland, and 3.2 cents in a group of 15 Midwestern states. (All prices in Canadian dollars.)

The survey also found Ontario’s prices are even higher than neighbouring provinces. In Quebec, which is rich with hydro power, industries paid 4.5 cents a kilowatt hour and in Manitoba it is even lower at 3.6 cents.

“There’s no good reason for our energy to cost twice as much as in Chicago. We need to reverse the deliberate government decisions that have created this crisis,” said Hudak, who intends to make electricity prices an issue during the next provincial election.

The Tory leader said a major contributor to the rising electricity rates was the Liberal government’s decision under Premier Dalton McGuinty to provide “enormous subsidies” for solar and wind power.

“The auditor general said that for similar programs, every job gained was matched by as many as four jobs lost . . . because of higher energy prices,” Hudak said.

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